Their stories must have been on my mother's mind when, widowed in her 50's, pensionless and without job skills, she first began working for a living.

Jimmy Owens, a trumpeter, described how jazz musicians often retire penniless and pensionless.

Others held banners saying Sin casa, sin curro, sin pensión (homeless, jobless, pensionless).

Company owner Pete Ventura donated a portion of his profits to a Negro Leagues Widows fund, helping out pensionless widows of Negro Leaguers.

His paternal grandfather, Columbia County Sheriff Sidney Smith McMath, grand nephew of his Goliad namesake, had himself been killed in the line of duty the previous year, leaving a pensionless widow and eight children, Hal being the eldest.